Federal budget disappoints

AbstractFinance Minister Paul Martin's first budget disappointed almost everyone. The business sector was disappointed at the somewhat feeble attempt to grapple with the country's deficit. The mining industry was disappointed by tax proposals regarding mine reclamation that fall short of the industry's needs. Has anybody ever been happy with a federal budget?

This paper reports the results of a finite element study of the geothermal heatflow into dry mine airways. For isotropic and unsteady state conditions the heatflow into mine airways is studied for a range of surface heat transfer coefficients between rock and air, and age of the airway. Dimensionless temperature gradient values are presented in tables for different values ofBoit and Fourier numbers and the results are compared with Starfleld tables and Gibson algorithm. It is found that...

Polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) levels were measured in underground mines in the vicinity ofdiesel vehicles equipped with several types of emission control hardware. In general, the emission control devices appeared to reduce PAH levels, but the companion mutagen study suggested that the reduction might not always be beneficial. All underground PAH concentrations were below the threshold at which a significant impact on health might be expected, but recent animal exposure studies have...

Blasting in high sulphide content ores presents at least two major safety considerations: (1) compatibility of the explosives with the ore while resident in the borehole; and (2) introduction of a flame and shock producing explosive into this environment, while minimizing the risk of reactive ignition in the chemical reaction products/sulphide dust cloud resulting from the detonation. This paper will discuss only the second consideration, i.e. post detonation reactivity.The ETI (Explosives...

Within the next few years, underground mobile equipment will be partially automated. Mining methods will integrate more and more automation. Such an evolution will be possible only if adequate underground communication systems are developed. This is expected due to the available competence in Canadian telecommunication, to the economic pressure on the Canadian mining industries for international competitiveness and to the social changes where a better working environment (i.e. less accidents)...

The limited development and application of new technologies to narrow-vein mining is currently impeding progress in the industry to a point where productivity, working conditions and operating costs have reached a critical stage in many Canadian mines. &nbsp;&nbsp;In an effort to foster the emergence and application of new technologies, Universite Laval, together with other organizations, has carried out a R&amp;D project focussed on the need of identifying new development possibilities...

An underground mine fire can seriously threaten the lives of all personnel in the mine. This fact makes fire emergency planning a high priority in the mining industry. A fire emergency plan includes a means of warning miners of the existence of a fire, and the need to evacuate or retreat to a place of refuge. The warning alarm must be fast and must reach all miners, regardless of their location or work activity. Means of fire warning are varied, and include such methods as stench, flashing...